A look at some of their statements and how they compare with the facts:

ROMNEY on Syria: “What I”m afraid of is we”ve watched over the past year or so, first the president saying, ”Well, we”ll let the U.N. deal with it.” And Assad — excuse me, Kofi Annan — came in and said we”re going to try to have a cease-fire. That didn”t work. Then it went to the Russians and said, ”Let”s see if you can do something.” We should be playing the leadership role there.”

OBAMA: “We are playing the leadership role.”

THE FACTS: Under Obama, the United States has taken a lead in trying to organize Syria”s splintered opposition, even if the U.S. isn”t interested in military intervention or providing direct arms support to the rebels. ROMNEY: Said that when he was Massachusetts governor, high-school students who graduated in the top quarter “got a four-year, tuition-free ride at any Massachusetts public institution of higher learning.”

THE FACTS: Romney was right. The John and Abigail Adams scholarship program began in 2004 when he was governor.

ROMNEY: “In the 2000 debates, there was no mention of terrorism.”

THE FACTS: There was passing mention of terrorism in the 2000 debates. In the Oct. 17, 2000, debate between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, Gore talked about his work in Congress to “deal with the problems of terrorism and these new weapons of mass destruction.” And in the vice presidential debate, Democrat Joe Lieberman defended the Clinton administration”s record of preparing the armed forces to “meet the threats of the new generation of tomorrow, of weapons of mass destruction, of ballistic missiles, terrorism, cyber warfare.” Romney”s larger point, that the U.S. did not anticipate anything on the scale of terrorist threat that existed, is supported by the light attention paid to the subject in the debates.

OBAMA: “What I would not have had done was left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down. And that certainly would not help us in the Middle East.”

THE FACTS: Obama was suggesting that he had never favored keeping U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the December 2011 withdrawal deadline that the Bush administration had negotiated with the Iraqi government. Actually, the Obama administration tried for many months to win Iraqi agreement to keeping several thousand American troops there beyond 2011 to continue training and advising the Iraqi armed forces. The talks broke down over a disagreement on legal immunity for U.S. troops.